Top 10 gifts for those who love travelling

By Amanda Shendruk, The Ottawa CitizenDecember 16, 2011

In a world where people routinely live in one city and work in another, have family around the globe and can collect enough Air Miles from buying groceries and gas to fly to Florida, you’re bound to end up with at least one traveller on your Christmas list. Finding the perfect present for anyone, let alone an addicted adventurer, can be daunting. But there is no need to resort to bestowing international power converters upon your companions: Whether you live with a globetrotter or have befriended a jet-setter, we’ve got your gifting answers. Here is our list of the Top 10 travel gifts to help you navigate the Christmas wishes of the most nomadic people in your life.

Platypus Platypreserve Wine Preservation System

$8 at Mountain Equipment Co-op

The travelling wine lover is a special breed and almost every year you will find one on your Christmas list. When you tire of trying to import the perfect pinot noir, don’t throw in the towel and grab a random, uninspired vintage from Loblaws. Instead, gift your connoisseurs something that combines their exploring and drinking passions: The Platypreserve Wine Preservation System allows for wine portability without ruining flavour or causing oxidization. It extends the drinkability of wine, keeping it fresh on a picnic, camping trip or cycle through the Alsace region of France.

Buy for: Almost any wine lover. They all innately know that a crisp Chianti is best enjoyed on a tranquil Tuscan hillside — especially when there are no worries of broken glass and wasted wine.

Sammies by Samsonite

Various sizes and prices at several luggage stores

Children are usually pretty adorable all on their own. But if you’re looking for cute overload, the Sammies bags from Samsonite should satisfy the need. Pint-sized suitcases, backpacks and purses adorned with three-dimensional animals aren’t just the most precious packs on the market, they are also tough and durable. Your tiny traveller will love the playful designs so much that your jealous inner child will wish creature-themed laptop bags were part of the line.

Buy for: Junior jet-setters who like to rock the critter chic look.

Woven Cashmere Travel Set

$350 at the Bay

Every Canadian needs an iconic Hudson’s Bay point blanket. But since they don’t provide them at birth or hand them out at citizenship ceremonies, you might just have to pony up the money for the time-honoured Canuck classic. This Christmas, try a travelling twist on the traditional: treat your loved one to cashmere comfort with a Hudson’s Bay striped travel set. Complete with blanket, sleep mask and inflatable pillow, it provides luxurious repose whether you’re cruising in the bow of a canoe or flying first class. The price may be steep, but if the Hudson’s Bay Company does anything well, it’s blankets (with stripes).

Buy for: Those who sleep most soundly when wrapped in centuries of history.

Envelope-style Travel Wallet

$59 at Danier Leather

If you have travelled as a family you know there’s usually one very organized and diligent person who ends up storing everyone’s tickets, passports, timetables and stress. (Let’s be honest, we’re talking about you, Mom.) Reward the family facilitator with a bold leather travel wallet from Danier. With a removable passport holder, and pockets for boarding passes, tickets and coins, she (or he) can at least shepherd the family from train to plane in style.

Buy for: The perennial planner. However, it’s also a clever purchase for the chronically cluttered as a forward but fashionable hint to get organized.

Does a pile of elephants weigh less than the library your co-traveller insists on packing? (But what if we finish all the books? What if we’re stranded for a month? What if there is no English bookstore?) If you find yourself or your loved ones consistently abandoning underwear and toiletries at the last minute to get their bag of books under the airline weight limit, you need to buy them a Kindle. Built-in Wi-Fi allows readers to purchase e-books and magazines right from the screen and the e-ink technology display reads like paper. A single, thin tablet can quickly replace a duffel bag of literary tomes and move you from luggage lineups to carry-on freedom. And since their inception years ago, Kindles have gotgnificantly cheaper, so you won’t have to take a load from your wallet in order to take a load off someone’s shoulder.

Buy for: The wandering bookworm who wants to enjoy the literary stylings of their favourite writer, but not the burden the books place on their back.

It’s normal to hope people adore the presents you lavish upon them. Sometimes, however, a gift comes along that you want the recipient never to use. The Survival Series Ultimate Kit is such a purchase, but if the owner ever needs to take advantage of its components, your Christmas token will certainly be their favourite. This supreme survival collection comes with a Gerber miniature multi-tool, wire cutters, a screwdriver, tweezers, a mini-light, waterproof matches, a sewing kit, a pocket survival guide (and more!), all in a lightweight, ripstop nylon bag. Toss it in the trunk for a snowy drive across Saskatchewan, or stuff in the bottom of your pack before trekking into the Amazon. Its uses are as endless as the number of objects that just seem to keep coming and coming (and coming) out of the kit.

Buy for: Either those who are prone to stumbling into risky situations or those who seek them out. Good for both the recipient’s safety and the gift giver’s peace of mind.

Red Canoe Cessna Stow Bag

$99.95 at Chapters

Pilots may no longer have the hotshot appeal that they did in the ’60s, but for many a dedicated traveller, there’s no one better: the ace in the cockpit turns globe-trotting dreams into reality and expensive tickets into white sand beaches and mai tais. With such admiration from adventurers, there’s bound to be someone on your list who will think the Cessna Stow Bag is first-rate. The mid-sized vintage-inspired duffel bag is aviation style at its finest and a memorable gift for any lover of the skies — whether or not they can explain the mechanics of para-lift flaps.

Buy for: Travellers of any age: the young will love its retro cool and the more experienced will revel in the nostalgia.

Handmade Travel Journal

Various sizes and prices at Ten Thousand Villages

Once upon a time, people kept their blogs in books, written by hand and not broadcast to the world. No really, it’s true. In fact, there are those who continue the fine tradition of diary-keeping by recording their travels and adventures. If such a person finds their way on to your list, consider giving them a colourful, fair-trade journal from Ten Thousand Villages. Not only is the recycled fabric bold and the hand-crafted construction inspiring, there’s a bonus ethical component that will really get you into the spirit of Christmas: the sale of the journals support impoverished Bangladeshi women who are part of a service organization called Jute Works, which focuses on assisting the women with job training, literacy, health issues and leadership skills.

Buy for: An aspiring Bill Bryson, or for those who are acutely conscious of the effects of their consumer choices.

Intec Travel Kit (Nintendo DSi XL)

$14.95 at Future Shop

If you have kids, the chances that you own at least one Nintendo DS are pretty high. And if you travel with those children, you almost certainly have one (due to the near supernatural ability of these devices to calm back-seat commotion). If fear of “Are we there yet?” haunts you at night, give your kids a Nintendo DS travel kit, so they’re prepared on the road for any potential entertainment-disabling scenario. The soft case includes 20 accessories for the DS, including a car adadapter, earphones, game cases, replacement stylus, screen protectors, cleaning cloth and more. Now when you embarrassingly lose the stylus after “borrowing” the device from its sleeping guardians, they won’t disown you in the morning.

Buy for: The meticulous child who likes all her ducks in a row, and all her replacements styli in an organized, compact case.

MSR PackTowl Ultralite Towel

$18.50-$23.75 at Mountain Equipment Co-op

Some of the best things in life are small: kittens, diamond rings and Smart cars, to name a few. For those on a wanderlust, however, the Ultralite Towel probably tops the list of tiny treasures. This lightweight, polyester-microfibre towel stuffs into an itsy-bitsy sack but unfolds to a glorious full size. Not only does it absorb twice its weight in water (and wring out almost completely dry!) but it boasts an antimicrobial treatment that reduces odour retention. It’s so handy it’s likely never to be forgotten. This is good because, as Douglas Adams wisely wrote, “Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.”

Buy for: Everyone. It fits perfectly in a stocking and honestly, no seasoned traveller should be totting fluffy, full-sized towels around the globe.

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